Theme and Variations

Well, dear readers, I am afraid I will be away for a little while. Oh, don’t you worry: I’m not leaving you bereft, but I’m the one who’s going to be off on a journey. You see, Passover is coming up (I know, I really meant to review some Passover stories– check out this book if you’re still looking for a good one), and I’m going to visit my family in Israel for the holiday. What that means is that I’ve got something a little different going on here for the next week and a bit. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to have posts going up every weekday about music-themed books.

Why music? you ask, baffled by this new sign of eccentricity in your Authoress. Well, I have a few reasons: a) Because I wanted to and this is my blog, so, well, I’m doing what I want; b) Because I have a lot of books about music, in one fashion or another, and I thought it would be fun to group them together and see what happened; c) Because I see a lot of similarities between a journey and a piece of music, and it seemed thematically appropriate. I love the thematically appropriate, don’t you?

So, starting tomorrow, I’ll be introducing our theme (spoiler alert: the theme is “music in children’s books,” sorry for spoiling the surprise), and you’ll have eight days of variations on that theme. Some of these variations will be pretty close to the original theme (books about the orchestra, symphonic music, instruments) and some will be a little farther (fiction books about compositions and composers) and some will seem way out there (I’m going to keep some surprises in my back pocket, so just wait and see). But everything will come back to music in some fashion or other.

I have another little reason for doing this. My Changeling is a big fan of music these days. She loves listening and dancing and hearing stories about it. She loves watching orchestras on YouTube, for crying out loud. There’s a reason I have so many books connected to music– even more than I have bird-related books! And it’s fun for me to delve into all the different aspects I just listed and think them through as the Changeling’s mother and voice actress. What works so well for reading about the orchestra? What works in the story of a composition? Why? What attracts her? These are some of the questions we’re going to be thinking about for the next week and a half, so, while I’m off exploring my own theme and variations, I hope you enjoy these.

Pray for me: I’m not the world’s best traveller, she said making use of litotes to excellent effect. I am, myself, praying that the theme won’t be sunstroke with variations of headaches, nausea, and a side-theme of social anxiety. Fortunately, I’ll be with family, and I’m sure all will be well. As for you, dear my blog, I’ll check back in here to make sure that everything’s running smoothly and posting as it ought to be, but do let me know if you’re in need, for we all know that the best laid plans of Blog an’ Authoress gang aft agley.

And now sit back, relax, and put on, oh, might I suggest you start with some Beethoven? Why, no, that’s not a hint of any kind… but check back tomorrow to see where our musical adventure will begin. (Vienna, 1808, Theater an der Wien. Work from there to find out more.)